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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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See Q& A: When does the 72-hour time limit for notifying the ICO of a data breach start to run? Article 33 of the General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR), which sets out data breach notification obligations, took effect on 25 May 2018......
Italy and France, two countries that had voiced concerns over the law’s effect on their businesses’ competitiveness, accepted Belgian eleventh-hour concessions that lift the annual revenue threshold for companies to be caught by the law from €300m to €450m. According to the agreed text, only companies with more than a thousand employees will fall within the scope of the law. Belgium, which has been chairing legislative discussions among member states as the current holder of the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency, also pared back some oversight provisions......
Risk & Compliance weekly highlights—14 March 2024 In this issue: Data protection Financial sanctions AML, CTF & counter-proliferation financing Other financial crime Other Risk & Compliance updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New and updated content Latest Q& A Data protection Data Protection Act 2018 ( Amendment of Schedule 2 Exemptions) Regulations 2024 SI 2024/342: Brought forward to respond to the Court’s determinations, these amendments embed more explicit safeguards on the face of the Data Protection Act 2018 ( DPA 2018). The Regulations took effect on 8 March 2024. See: LNB News 11/03/2024... Financial sanctions Reflecting on the key developments for sanctions lawyers in 2023 and predicting what 2024 might hold Diana Czugler, a senior associate at Peters & Peters, reviews the principal lessons from 2023 for sanctions practitioners and organisations aiming to adhere to...
Throughout 2023 and into early 2024, attention was firmly fixed on the implementation and enforcement of sanctions under the UK’s autonomous post‑ Brexit regime, with Russia the prime focus. Per the most recent officially reported data, as at 31 March 2023 the UK’s consolidated list of financial sanctions targets, maintained by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation ( OFSI), named 3,883 designated persons. Those individuals and entities were subject to an asset freeze (or other restrictions) across 35 sanctions regimes. These totals are likely to have increased substantially over the past 12 months, and we expect them to rise further between now and the end of the year. Alongside the expansion of the roster of sanctioned persons, 2023 also brought a suite of new financial and trade prohibitions. Measures introduced under the Russia regime have included limits on providing trust services and legal...
Amid these developments, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s ( FCDO) strategy, ‘ Deter, disrupt and demonstrate— UK sanctions in a contested world’, released on 22 February 2024, sets out reflections on achievements, challenges and what lies ahead for the UK sanctions framework. The paper highlights that: international co-operation is central for the FCDO, covering both aligned sanctions and tackling circumvention routes in third countries businesses must balance strong, effective sanctions compliance systems and controls with avoiding over‑compliance the government may bring forward a new humanitarian exception to financial sanctions designated persons could soon seek the unfreezing of assets to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction the government is watching closely how the courts interpret relatively new UK sanctions regulations UK government focus A defining strand of the strategy is collaboration. It stresses the need for international...
The new unit, building on the agency’s Financial Investigations Team, will concentrate on chasing criminal proceeds through civil measures, including account freezing orders and cash seizures. It intends to restrain assets pre-charge and to confiscate proceeds after conviction under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The Environment Agency also confirmed the Economic Crime Unit will be authorised to carry out money laundering investigations. An unsurprising development The news of the Economic Crime Unit’s creation, and its drive to follow criminal money linked to environmental offences, is no surprise. In January 2023, the Environment Agency reported that between 2017 and 2020 it had brought 191 prosecutions for illegal waste activity, producing fines of over £1.1m ( US$1.4m) and confiscation orders totalling £5.5m. However, with reports that the criminal courts are backlogged to record levels (in August 2023 there were 65,000 cases waiting to be heard in the Crown...
Risk & Compliance weekly highlights—7 March 2024 In this issue: Data protection Financial sanctions AML, CTF & counter-proliferation financing Other financial crime Other Risk & Compliance updates this week Lex Talk®Risk & Compliance: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New and updated content Data protection Clarity for companies on UK data protection fines, ICO to publish new calculation guidance MLex: Organisations facing UK data protection enforcement can expect clearer visibility on the size of any penalty once the Information Commissioner’s Office ( ICO) issues its updated guidance. The watchdog’s forthcoming ‘five-step process’ for fine calculation will be unveiled ‘very soon’, the regulator’s general counsel confirmed in London on 29 February 2024. The lawyer added that the ICO must keep pace with legislative shifts both domestically and...
After a consultation period, the ICO is preparing to release guidance offering deeper clarity on how it works out penalties – to a degree, according to Claudia Berg, ICO general counsel, speaking at the ‘ IAPP Data Protection Intensive: UK 2024’ in London on 28–29 February 2024. ‘ People need to grasp, and to some extent anticipate, what the likely penalty will be if you do break the law,’ Berg said, adding that monetary sanctions are ‘one tool in the toolbox.’ Steps, buckets, traffic lights The updated approach will use five stages. First comes a ‘traffic light’ grading into ‘three buckets’ of seriousness, Berg explained. Subsequent stages consider both aggravating and mitigating elements. These will inform any potential fine to be imposed......
The recommendations accepted by the government On 12 February 2024, the government issued its reply to the Law Commission’s report. Although most of the Commission’s recommendations were accepted, wholly or in part, the practical impact on the current SARs framework is slight, and real change is limited. Measures that keep matters as they are were approved, including retaining the consent regime, leaving unchanged the process for handling SARs linked to international criminality, and declining to provide a statutory definition of suspicion. Several other recommendations were endorsed only in a qualified way, with caveats and constraints. Further research into targeted reporting (where in specified circumstances filing a SAR is mandatory) was agreed in principle; however, the government said it had already covered this when passing the ECCTA 2023 and elected not to pursue it further. The question of how a financial...
Enforcement against those already identified as non-compliant is coming At a privacy conference in London, Information Commissioner John Edwards warned that action is imminent. “ Our bots are coming for your bots,” he said, describing a coding challenge his office launched on 28 February 2024 with external experts, using AI to scan websites and verify cookie banner compliance. Flagged earlier in 2024, the hackathon complements established enforcement. In November 2023, the ICO wrote to 53 of the largest websites with non-compliant cookie banners. By January 2024, the ICO said 38 had complied and four more would do so within a month. That figure has not shifted, Edwards added, and enforcement now awaits the remainder. Enforcement is coming for the rest, he confirmed......
In this edition: Financial sanctions AML, CTF & counter-proliferation financing Other financial crime Data protection Cybersecurity Further Risk & Compliance updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New and updated content Financial sanctions Abramovich associate fails to overturn UK sanctions in test case Law360 reports that, on 27 February 2024, a billionaire connected to Roman Abramovich was unsuccessful in his bid to reverse sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, marking the first substantive appeal to contest the UK government’s sanctions regime since the war began. See News Analysis: Abramovich ally loses appeal to upend UK sanctions in test case. USDT releases analysis on effects of second-phase price cap on Russian oil The US Department of the Treasury ( USDT) has released an analysis on the impact of the second phase of the price cap on Russian oil......
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Belgian officials, overseeing EU legislative negotiations as the current holder of the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency, reported that a meeting of national envoys failed to break the deadlock. They noted that a final compromise on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive had been tabled for Coreper ambassadors to endorse, but, despite the presidency’s efforts, sufficient backing did not materialise. For adoption, the proposal required a qualified majority: at least 15 Member States, together accounting for a minimum of 65% of the EU’s citizens. However, Germany and Italy, along with Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovakia, all abstained, and Sweden voted against the measure. Austrian officials said they were unable to take......
Legal Service Board report: The misuse of non-disclosure agreements: call for evidence themes and summary of evidence The LSB reported that clients and their legal advisers deploy these binding agreements to hide conduct that is lawful yet unethical, including bullying, settlements involving consumer products, and conflicts in construction and building. Numerous respondents also indicated NDAs are used across workplaces to conclude employment disputes. Matthew Hill, the LSB’s outgoing chief executive, voiced his gratitude to those who contributed to the review, which ran from May to July, noting that the exercise helped to illuminate a corner of legal practice that is, by its very nature, hidden. He further observed that the recurrent patterns set out in the report demonstrate that, when NDAs are misused, the consequences for people’s lives can be devastating......
The Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal unanimously threw out Eugene Shvidler’s bid to have the sanctions against him ruled unlawful. The judges concluded the government had reasonable grounds to believe the oil magnate derived financial advantage from his association with Russian billionaire Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea Football Club. The Anglo- American businessman was designated by the UK in March 2022 due to his personal and commercial links with Abramovich. The Court of Appeal further determined that targeted measures are indefinite in nature and add to the overall force of the sanctions regime, introduced in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and breaches of international law. Shvidler had sought to reverse a refusal of his challenge to the Foreign Office’s March 2022 decision to sanction him following Russia’s assault on Ukraine. He alleges that Grant Shapps, then transport...
What are the report’s key findings? UK enforcement bodies continue to struggle to bring prosecutions against senior leaders in major companies and lack concrete, clearly defined strategies for pursuing individual responsibility and accountability. Even when companies are fined, action against specific individuals remains exceptionally rare. Directors of small and medium-sized enterprises ( SMEs) are far more likely to be convicted, fined and disqualified than peers at larger businesses; moreover, penalties imposed on big firms tend to be smaller relative to turnover. The Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) has done little to enforce the new Senior Managers and Certification Regime ( SMCR) in practice, and has in fact issued fewer fines and prohibition orders against individuals over the past decade. Although the Competition and Markets Authority ( CMA) and the Insolvency Service have sought to disqualify directors at large...
A recap: What changes were already made in the period 2018–2020, as part of implementing Brexit? At the point when EU rules ceased to apply in the UK (31 December 2020), the European Union ( Withdrawal) Act 2018 ( EU( W) A 2018) preserved EU-derived rights and duties within domestic legislation. This covered the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation ( EU) 2016/679 ( EU GDPR), which was then recast as the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation, Retained Regulation ( EU) 2016/679 ( UK GDPR) under the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications ( Amendments etc) ( EU Exit) Regulations 2019, SI 2019/419, reg 2. The Data Protection Act 2018 ( DPA 2018) likewise continued in force. The EU law so preserved, together with UK measures that had implemented EU rights and obligations, formed a broad category of domestic law termed retained EU...
Risk & Compliance weekly highlights—22 February 2024 In this issue: Risk & Compliance forecast Data protection Financial sanctions Other financial crime Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New and updated content Risk & Compliance forecast Risk & Compliance forecast as at 20 February 2024 Our refreshed Risk & Compliance forecast (as at 20 February 2024) is now available. This month’s updates cover: the Home Office reply to the review of the SARs regime; anticipated amendments to OFSI’s sanctions guidance; the schedule for the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill; and a Private Members’ Bill on whistleblowing. See News Analysis: Risk & Compliance forecast as at 20 February 2024. Data protection Data Protection and Digital Information Bill gets time extension to ensure parliamentary passage MLex: The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill has been granted additional time to complete its...
This piece considers these questions by exploring the scope—and the inherent ambiguity—of the new offence... The new offence Section 199 of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 ( ECCTA 2023) states that a large organisation commits the failure to prevent fraud offence if it does not stop an associated person from committing a fraud offence, where that associated person intends to benefit, directly or indirectly, either: the organisation the person to whom, or to whose subsidiary, the associated person provides services on the organisation’s behalf Qualifying fraud offences are set out in ECCTA 2023, Schedule 13. An organisation is not guilty of the failure to prevent fraud offence if it is, or is intended to be, the victim of the fraud itself. There is a defence where, at the time the fraud offence occurred, the organisation had reasonable fraud...
The SRA was judged to offer 'sufficient' assurance against two benchmarks: 'well-led' and an 'effective approach to regulation'. The board has shifted to a traffic light system, grading regulators as delivering 'sufficient', 'partial' or 'insufficient' assurance. However, the LSB, the body supervising the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales, noted that its review spanned only October 2022 to May 2023. As a result, then, 'significant events for the sector' sat beyond the review window. The SRA's August 2023 intervention into Axiom Ince, together with the board's subsequent look at the steps preceding that move, are excluded. Nor did the LSB consider the possible extent of solicitors' involvement in the miscarriages of justice central to the Post Office scandal. The oversight regulator also gave no explanation for limiting the assessment to eight months rather than a full year during the period under...
Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 ( ECCTA 2023) Through the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 ( ECCTA 2023), reforms have taken hold, shifting corporate fault from the old ‘directing mind and will’ test to a ‘senior manager’ benchmark. Sara Lawson KC confirmed that the SFO is actively weighing adjustments to the identification principle, which permits the agency to attribute criminal responsibility to companies for individuals’ misconduct. Addressing a white-collar defence gathering in London, Lawson described the changes — which make it easier for prosecutors to pursue companies for economic crimes — as 'a very nice Christmas present for us'. Although the application of the revised threshold is expected to face court challenges, the measures 'should have a huge effect for us', she added. The ECCTA 2023 displaces the long-established approach with the new senior manager model for corporate...
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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